MY EARLIEST MEMORIES of independent monetary transactions are from when I was perhaps only five. I remember clutching five rupees tightly in my tiny hands, feeling perhaps like the richest secret in town.  Five rupees would now get you nothing, in fact there is now no longer even a five rupee bill.Years back, five rupees amounted to a fortune for a five year old.

In the stoic surroundings of a missionary school, where all indulgence seemed like nothing but indulgence whether big or small, holding on to that money at lunch was such a tremendous and burdensome pleasure, that as I write this now, I can smell the crumpled bill, in small sweaty hands. I would feel then as I ran out of class and rushed to the canteen that the school's eyes were on me, and everyone who had money was in this race to reach the canteen first.